Update, Monday Jan. 5: And with the turn of the New Year, the domestic box office is up 6.5% for the first four days of 2015 with $210.2M versus the same period in 2014 which counted $197.4M according to Rentrak. The post-New Year’s FSS clocked in with $154.6M, down 26% from the post Christmas frame of $209M — but no one is sobbing. Why? Because this year’s post New Year’s frame was up a superb 10% from 2014’s $141.2M. Here’s the top 20 actuals– APD:

Previous, Sunday 11AM: (Analysis by Brian Brooks)Audiences maintained their affair with The Hobbit in the first weekend of 2015 even as they began a dalliance with The Woman In Black 2, which landed in fourth for the weekend. Disney’s Into The Woods and Universal’s Unbroken, meanwhile, traded places in the Top 3 from last weekend. Woods grossed an estimated $19.1M Friday to Sunday vs. Unbroken‘s $18.358M estimated weekend take.

Overall, the box office has grossed an estimated $208.233M New Year’s Day through Sunday, a 5.5% increase from 2014’s first four-day total of $197.444M, according to Rentrak Theatrical. The Top 10 features totaled $127.256M Friday to Sunday, down 28.7% from last weekend’s $178.521M, but up 7% from last year’s Top 10 of $118.936M, which included Frozen and The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug. The weekend’s total box office cume came in at $153M, an 8.4% increase from the same period last year, according to Rentrak’s Paul Dergarabedian.

Warner Bros’ The Hobbit: The Battle Of The Five Armies is estimated to have grossed $21.9M Friday to Sunday in 3,875 theaters, a 46% decline from the previous weekend’s 3-day $41.4M gross. That is lower than the third frame of Smaug, which came in at just over $29M and The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey‘s $31.9M. Still, Five Armies first January frame outperformed Smaug‘s $15.675M gross during the same period last year as well as An Unexpected Journey‘s $17.5M two years prior. Both Smaug and An Unexpected Journey opened earlier in December than Five Armies, which moved its release forward to capitalize on when the Christmas holiday fell on the calendar.

The Five Armies’ has now been atop the box office for three weeks, aligning the title with the previous five Lord Of The Rings and Hobbit titles which all landed number one in the box office for three weeks or more.

Relativity’s The Woman In Black 2: Angel Of Death grossed an estimated $15.14M FSS, beating the distributor’s initial estimates of $9-$11M, and ended up in fourth overall. Not bad for a $1M acquisition. It came on strong Friday with a $7.75M gross (including $1.5M from Thursday evening sneak screenings) and rounded out Saturday with a $4.93M daily gross (-36%).

“This first weekend in January has proven to be a solid core weekend for [thrillers],” said Kyle Davies, Relativity’s President Worldwide Distribution. “In terms of geography, it played broadly in large cities and small towns with strong Hispanic and African American representation. It skewed younger and female.”

Exit polls showed The Woman In Black 2‘s crowd was 53% female and 65% 25 and under. Caucasians made up 38% of the weekend’s crowd, with 25% being African American and 24% Hispanic.

Angel Of Death received a C CinemaScore, which places it line with other horror movies that performed at the box office including Ouija ($50.85M cume), The Cabin In The Woods ($42M cume) and Paranormal Activity 4 ($53.9M cume).

Disney’s Into The Woods and Universal’s Unbroken have vied for the No. 2 slot in the box office, though Woods is in 652 fewer theaters. Woods‘ $19.1M weekend gross is off just 39% from last weekend’s $46.1M (which included $1.1M from Xmas Eve), while Unbroken’s $18.358M weekend tally is off 40% from its $47.34M gross last weekend (which included an $850K from Xmas Eve). In its second weekend, Les Miserables grossed just north of $16M in 2,904 locations, 366 more than Woods.

While each title has temporarily held the lead over the other on any given day since their debuts two weeks ago, sources expectthe younger-skewing Into The Woods to edge out Unbroken.

Fox’s Night At The Museum: Secret Of The Tomb was off just 28% from the previous weekend, grossing an estimated $14.45M Friday to Sunday despite shedding 112 theaters. Its cume is now just shy of $90M.

TWC added just seven locations for The Imitation Game‘s sixth weekend, grossing over $8.1M in 754 theaters, up 2% from last week’s $7.93M and placing it just ahead of The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 in seventh place.

Coming out of the holidays, Imitation Game is 34% ahead of The King’s Speech, Weinstein’s 2010-11 Oscar and box-office hit, said Erik Lomis, the company’s president of theatrical.

“The days don’t align precisely but all signs are good for Imitation Game,” he said. “It’s playing fantastic. Usually in 700 theaters you can find a number that are weak, but here it’s really only about five of them.” TWC will double the number of theaters for The Imitation Game this week and will go wide by the end of January or early February.

Paramount added 16 runs for its remake of The Gambler, grossing $6.3M in 2,494 theaters, dropping the Mark Wahlberg-starrer 29% from the previous week. His 2010 feature The Fighter grossed $12.13M in its second frame, though that came with a 2,500-theater increase from the title’s initial four-theater bow. Fighter went on to cume over $93.61M.

Disney’s animated awards hopeful Big Hero 6 re-entered the Top 10 with an estimated $4.816M weekend gross in 1,913 locations, down 4% from the previous weekend. In nine weeks, it has cumed $211.3M. Fox Searchlight’s Wild placed just under Big Hero 6, grossing $4.5M, off 17% from the previous weekend’s $5.4M. It has cumed $25.81M.

Previous, Saturday, 8AM: Studio-reported Friday estimates are in with The Hobbit: The Battle Of The Five Armies, of course,showing its hold on No. 1 with $8.38M and a cume of $207.2M. But the biggest change is that Relativity’s The Woman In Black 2: Angel Of Death has climbed over Universal’s Unbroken and Disney’s Into The Woods for the No. 2 Friday spot at $7.75M. The film, which was acquired by Relativity for $1M, looks like it will settle for fourth by Sunday with $16.2M, with Unbroken and Into the Woods regaining their respective No. 2 (at $19.2M) and No. 3 slots (at $19M). Into The Woods came in third Friday with $7.46M and a cume of $79.6M. Unbroken made $7.39M on Friday for a $76.8M cume. In sum, a very narrow fight for slots two through four. Per industry estimates, A24’s A Most Violent Yearracked up $61K in its third day and is looking at an updated 3-day of $168k and a big $41K per theater. The crime drama, which bowed Wednesday, should be at $279K by tomorrow. The rest are as follows: Fox’s Night At The Museum: Secret Of The Tomb in fifth with $5.93M ($81.2M), Sony’s Anniein sixth with $4.5M ($65.7M), Lionsgate’s The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1 at No. 7 with $3M ($319.2M running cume), TWC’s The Imitation Gamewith $2.95M ($25.6M)in eighth, Paramount’s The Gamblerat nine with $2.58M ($23.8M) and Disney’sBig Hero 6at No. 10 with $1.88M ($208.3M). Notables: Fox Searchlight’s Wild with $1.7M ($23M), TWC’s Big Eyes with $960K ($8.3M), Paramount’s Selma with $227K ($1.66M) and Warner Bros‘ American Snipermatching last night’s industry estimates with $234K ($1.78M). Sony’s The Interviewdrew $440K on Friday ($4.3M).

PREVIOUSLY, Saturday, 2AM: With only one new title in the marketplace, a horror film, and a slew of holiday holdovers dominating the top 10 again, this weekend might not sound so riveting. Make no mistake: Distribution chiefs are quite content heading into the post-New Year’s frame given the spillover traffic from the holidays and the folks who are still on break. Not only is New Year’s Day 2015 expected to post a 3.8% rise over 2014, but this weekend’s top 20 films are expected to ring up an estimated total of $155.7M, a 14% surge over last year’s top 20 during the first FSS. A year ago, the January 3-5 period rang up $141.2M for all films, with the top six titles ranging from $10M-$19.6M. This weekend, the top six are expected to have a wider range from $12.2M to $22.18M. Topping all of this off, three late-December titles — Unbroken, Into The Woods and Night At The Museum: Secret Of The Tomb are expected to cross the $90M mark.

Given how competitive the marketplace is now, it made Friday a hard read for some box office bean counters. One industry projection tonight showed Relativity’s new entry The Woman In Black 2: Angel Of Death actually beating Warner Bros/New Line/MGM’s The Hobbit: The Battle Of The Five Armies, $8.8M to $8.2M. However, more industry estimates show the latter winning Friday with $8.27M at No. 1 and Woman In Black 2 in No. 4 with $7.39M. The do-si-do between Into The Woods and Unbroken continues between the two and three spots,but as of this minute tonight, Angelina Jolie’s older-demo film is placing second for both Friday ($7.5M) and the weekend with $21.1M. Into The Woods is projected for third with a $7.47M Friday and $18.7M FSS.

Five Armies crossed the $200M in its 17th day — two days faster than both 2013’s The Hobbit: The Desolation Of Smaug and 2001’s The Lord RinOf Thegs: The Fellowship Of The Ring. 2012’s The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey hit the $200M mark in 15 days. The third Hobbit installment is looking to hold No. 1 with $22.18.M.

If tonight’s Friday B.O. of $7.39M (and weekend of $15.2M) for Woman In Black 2: Angel Of Death sticks until tomorrow, it will be a slightly lower opening day than the first Woman In Black ($8.3M/$20.87M weekend in February 2012) and even last January’s first frame opener Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones ($8.7M/$18.3M weekend). Relativity is hoping that with Woman In Black 2 being the only horror film in the market for the next couple of months, it will reap some extra fortune. In addition, it’s a PG-13 title, so it’s not kicking any teens out of the theater and into the parking lot.

Unlike the first Woman In Black ($54.3M final domestic in 2012), which landed a B- CinemaScore, Woman in Black 2 got a C. Now, understand that when it comes to CinemaScores and horror films, the two often contradict each other. The industry’s box office leg barometer for this genre isn’t as exact as with others. Quite often, top-grossing horror films are in the B or B+ range, i.e. Annabelle ($84.3M) and Scream 2 ($101.4M). But lower-grade CinemaScoring films can yield results: i.e. Paranormal Activity 3 got a C+ and ended its run at $104M, the second-highest chapter in the franchise. 2013’s Mama got a C and legged out at $71.6. Then there’s the lower end of the C spectrum: Lionsgate’s The Cabin In The Woods posted a bow of $14.7M and a final B.O. of $42.1M. The first Woman In Black was based on Susan Hill’s 1983 book. It spawned a 1987 play that was mounted first in Scarborough, England; in 1989, it moved to the West End ,where it has become the second-longest-running play there after Mousetrap. Hill received a story credit on the sequel. Also, note that the first Woman In Black, released by CBS films on February 3, 2012, benefited greatly from Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe. It was the actor’s first film after the Potter series ended, and it was pretty much a guarantee that a portion of his fanbase would show up. WomanIn Black 2 stars British actor Jeremy Irvine, who made his debut before U.S. moviegoers in Steven Spielberg’s Oscar-nominated 2011 film War Horse.

Family product continues to dominate the chart with Night At The Museum 3, Annie and Disney’s Big Hero 6 bouncing back into the top 10.

Among adult-driven titles in under 1,000 engagements, audiences are entranced by The Imitation Game. With a projected running cume of $30M in its sixth frame, Imitation Game is flying past its awards competition, which have spent more time in theaters than the Alan Turing biopic: Fox Searchlight’s Birdman (estimated cume through 12 weekends: $25.4M), Focus Features’ The Theory Of Everything ($24.8M estimated cume through nine frames) and Sony Classics’ Foxcatcher ($7.9M eighth-sesh running cume by Sunday).

Nonetheless, in New York, Los Angeles and select markets, the unspooling of hot awards contenders continues to fuel business. This weekend’s new ar thouse entry, A24’s A Most Violent Year, which has amassed a Golden Globe nom (Jessica Chastain best supporting actress), three Independent Spirits (editing, screenplay and supporting female) as well and a best pic win from the National Board of Review as well as wins for Chastain (supporting actress) and Oscar Isaac (best actor) collected an estimated $59K in its third day of release and is eyeing a five-day total cume of $276K from four theaters. Warner Bros’ American Sniper continues to amaze and is seeing an 18% uptick in its second Friday with $234K and another $630K+ in its second FSS, repping an even hold. Paramount’s Selma is expected to see an 8% weekend uptick bringing its cume through 11 days to $2.1M.

Despite being in 250 more theaters, Sony’s The Interview was down from its post-Christmas Friday by 51% and it looks to fall in its 3-day estimate. The film’s wide availability on VOD, which minted $15M, overpowered the Seth Rogen-James Franco’s theatrical B.O. last weekend of $2.48M by 428%.

By Sunday, Lionsgate’s The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1 is expected to have a running cume of $324.1M, about $8.87M off from eclipsing Disney/Marvel’s Guardians Of The Galaxy as the highest-grossing film of 2014.

25 Comments

St • on Jan 3, 2015 2:41 am

Wow. $90 millions for Unbroken only after two weeks. That’s crazy. How much it will have at the end? $130-150 millions? I remember how I was afraid if that will bomb and if it would have 30-40 millions overall. And now Jolie has $100 millions blockbuster as director. Not to mention that this is woman-director. Christmas release can do miracles if people will like movie. It will make and make money on Holidays.

Into The Woods will got easy to $100 millions too. I’m happy for Anna and Emily.

Looks like Mockingjay Part 1 will beat Guardians of the Galaxy as highest grossing movie of 2014 after all. For a while it looked like it might not. Amazing that worst Hunger Games movie still gets more money then any Twilight movie.

Night At The Museum had almost “bomb start” but then Holidays saved it and it will have $100 millions after all.

That stupid Annie movie will gave 61 millions and counting. Thats success. I thought it would bomb completely. But quietly it somehow gets money.

Good for The Imitation Game and Cumberbatch

mochie • on Jan 3, 2015 3:13 pm

She produced it too. Cha-ching.

Cj • on Jan 5, 2015 6:26 pm

I had AJ exhaustion after the brad jenn
drama.

Cj • on Jan 5, 2015 7:06 pm

What’s really freaky is the 7 yr old girl that survived a family plane crashed and walked into the woods to safety. Omg.

Mark • on Jan 3, 2015 7:41 pm

When you factor in its $75 million marketing cost (at least), 50/50 revenue split with theaters and complete lack of interest overseas, Will Smith’s “Annie” isn’t making any money.

So, the budget is reported at $65 million, a $30 million advertising budget (I would estimate $50 million, but maybe they saw they had a dud and backed off a bit). That means it needs $95 million before it looks like it’s not a total disaster. Like Mark pointed out, the international audience could care less, and when at a local theater, a group passed the poster and asked out loud: “WHY is Annie BLACK?!” They needed to make a better movie if they wanted to make this a real winner.

Theaters are here to stay • on Jan 4, 2015 6:56 pm

It’s not released internationally yet
Annie is already a hit. It will make his money back by the time it’s on TV

Just accept the fact that an already Oscar nominated black ( not biracial ) girl is the biggest child actor out there.

Just live with it

idiot

Annie Fan • on Jan 5, 2015 12:25 am

So pathetic how so many people desperately want Annie or any Black film to fail on these message boards. It’s disgusting. Annie is going to reach at least 100 million and that’s just something the haters will have to deal with.

Theaters are here to stay • on Jan 5, 2015 10:54 am

Ain’t it?

Those people hate when a black ( not biracial ) actress is doing well

They’re even more mad that she’s a child and has a bright future ahead of her

I never understand the hate

Dondi • on Jan 3, 2015 10:19 pm

Mockingjay Part 1 came 13K short of GotG for highest 2014 US box office. Part 2 will likely do better.

Well, one would think that now she can afford to buy a burger! Eat something, girl, you’re going to blow away in the next teeny, tiny, windstorm. If there was a guy in this business who was nothing but skin and bones people would talk.

Maybe her next movie will be about anorexia.

Colette • on Jan 4, 2015 9:20 pm

Better to be skinny than obese.
Eat a salad
Back to topic Unbroken will be fifth highest grossing War film in a few days in domestic box office.

The guys in this movie did an amazing job. This is her 2nd feature. Not perfect movie but she hit the heart of the people seeing it and to me that is what counts. The Public is enjoying the film. I’m sure some will reach to find something negative.. but pundits were expecting (some of them hoping) this movie would fail.. well try again another day.

This has been a very huge year for Angelina.. Maleficent.. now Unbroken.. not to mention all the personal things..

Bravo Bravo..

Neil • on Jan 3, 2015 11:57 am

I’m glad Unbroken is doing well for Angie because it means she’ll have the various studios’ confidence and backing to mount another directorial project, if she desires. However I didn’t like this film and by my reckoning it has some serious flaws. “Apparent” success can sometimes blind one to their faults and hopefully she isn’t above “hard reflection”. It is a good thing that her next film was already done before Unbroken’s release and that it is worlds apart in just about every way. Here’s hoping…

It is just her 2nd film. Yes there are flaws and I think she is and will learn. I don’t understand why critics felt that she had to create an unflawed masterpiece. If this film was such.. where would she go from there.

She has completed By the Sea and Africa will begin filming probably later in this year. She has time..

I think as a sophomore attempt.. and as noted the audiences are embracing it.

paticular • on Jan 4, 2015 11:48 am

Well put, doperganger. “pundits were expecting (some of them hoping) this movie would fail.” For every fan expressing their pleasure there seems to be a review that is hyper critical. When I watched this film, I looked for examples of those things the critics condemned. Didn’t find it. Not a perfect film, but well done.

macd • on Jan 4, 2015 1:01 pm

Another actor’s second attempt at directing is far from duplicating the success of “Unbroken”. Yes, I’m talking about the poisonous Tommy Lee Jones’ “The Homesman” which despite mostly favorable reviews seems to have topped off at $2.1-mil (on an estimated $15-mil budget). In addition to playing the lead, Jones also takes a producer and co-writer credit, which makes him a quadruple non-threat. Perhaps he should attempt a kickstarter approach for his next venture, although I have a feeling it would turn into the movie world’s first “kickstopper” project: people would actually pay their good money to PREVENT TLJ from any future attempts at filmmaking.